In another courtyard of the general’s manor.

  Ge Chunru was massaging Xiao Yuanshi’s shoulders.

  She never let the servant girls do it. She would always do it herself.

  First, she wanted Xiao Yuanshi to be touched by her actions.

  After all, she had worked hard to serve the old lady for a day, and also had to specially serve him. He would definitely have a heartache.

  Secondly, she did not want the servant girls to touch Xiao Yuanshi and come together if they were not careful. He could only be hers.

  “My husband, can you really send the old lady and the others back in a few days?” She really could not take it anymore and was on the verge of breaking down.

  The old lady wanted her to serve her every day before dawn.

  She would also request her to serve her breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

  She had been tormented so much recently that she lost some weight.

  Xiao Yuanshi also felt sorry for his little wife. “Just bear with it for a few more days. In the next two days, I will go out to borrow money to maintain the expenses of the general’s residence.

  “I will also complain to other people that after they came, the general’s residence was in a mess under their management. They even spent all the money.

  “After everyone knows their true colours, I will get someone to lure our two nephews to gamble. I will intentionally borrow some money to incur interest so that they would never be able to pay back.

  “This will cause a ruckus in the capital, with people coming to our door every day to chase after the debts.

  “After they are tortured by the moneylenders, and the old lady and the others have no way to seek help, I will make a strike.

  “I will intentionally borrow money to help pay them back. Then, I will use this to justify why I have to send them back to the village.”


  Then Xiao Yuanshi would say that the Xiao family’s grandsons were badly influenced by others and the old lady and others wanted to properly discipline them.

  So they brought them back to the village.

  No one in the capital would say that he was unfilial.

  Instead, they would sympathise with him for having such family members and nephews.

  Eldest Grandson Xiao was Old Lady Xiao and Old Master Xiao’s lifeblood. This was absolutely true.

  Not to mention that when Xiao Yuanshi was ruthless, he was even more ruthless than the old Xiao family.

  He even had the idea of getting someone to lure his nephews to gamble and borrow money at a high interest rate.

  He truly liked and doted on Ge Chunru, so he did not hide his plans in front of her.

  Ge Chunru’s eyes lit up. “Thank you for your hard work, my dear husband!”


  When Eldest Grandson Xiao and the others returned, she would bribe people to start luring them into gambling.

  Then, she would get someone to instigate the old lady and the rest to pester Xiao Hanzheng for money, so that he would not be able to study properly.

  They didn’t bring Xinghong along and she did not believe that she had run away with someone else.

  Thus, Ge Chunru had her father’s loyal servants and trusted aides to check it out.

  She found out that Xinghong was actually sold away by Old Lady Xiao.

  Moreover, not only was Xiao Hanzheng not dead, a village girl’s chongxi had woken him up.

  They found out that there were some problems with the medication and sent the doctor to prison.

  Xiao Baili did not marry nor bury with the dead.

  Xiao Hanyi (Xiao Erlang) did not fall into the water either.

  That woman was still alive and well.

  This made her secretly hate them.

  If the people from the old Xiao family had not come to the capital, even if they sold Xinghong, she would have ideas to make them pester Xiao Hanzheng’s family.

  But this old woman and the others actually came to the capital.

  According to the servants who came back, it was very likely that Xiao Hanzheng’s wife instigated it.

  This made her hate Shi Qingluo too.

  It was a pity that she was already having a headache dealing with the old woman and the others.

  She really did not have much energy to pay attention to the matters in Xiaxi village.

  To her, even if Xiao Hanzheng managed to become a high scholar, he would not be able to achieve anything.

  When the time was right, she would make sure that he returned to who he was at the beginning.

  As long as that woman was still alive, she would be a thorn in her heart.

  She could not let her have the chance to come to the capital. It would be best if she was dead.

  Right now, she focused her thoughts on how to get rid of the old lady and the others.

  This time, after sending the people from the old residence away, she would groom two servant girls from scratch to accompany them back.

  She did not believe that she would not be able to kill that woman and her family.

  At this moment, the two of them still didn’t know that the old lady and the others were making a move first.

  Otherwise, they would definitely vomit blood.

  The next day, after finishing their breakfast, Eldest Son Xiao and Third Son Xiao brought their two sons to the capital magistrate to report the case.

  They said that there was a case of theft in the general’s mansion and that the items and money in the storeroom had been stolen.

  Even the account book disappeared and they would like the capital magistrate to investigate it thoroughly.

  Before coming to the capital, Shi Qingluo had repeatedly instructed the old lady to write down all the expenses when she was the lady of the house.

  Otherwise, that woman would definitely dig a hole for them to jump in.

  The old lady remembered it clearly, so she let Eldest Grandson Xiao write down all the money they spent, and have the steward and the others to ink their stamp on it.

  Right now, she had the account book, so she wasn’t afraid of the investigations.

  On the other hand, those two beasts had definitely moved the money and things.

  As long as the capital magistrate investigated, let’s see what else the two beasts would say.

  If they did not teach them a lesson, they would think that they were easy to bully.

  If they wanted to chase them away, no way.

  The capital magistrate initially did not want to bother about this, but after Xi Rui heard about it, he ran to the Xi family’s old lady and acted coquettishly, wanting to make the general’s residence suffer.

  He still remembered their previous enmity, and he couldn’t wait to see the dog-eat-dog situation in the general’s manor.

  The matriarch asked her son to pressure the capital magistrate to deal with it impartially.

  In addition, recently, Xiao Yuanshi garnered some limelight in the imperial court.

  How could those who didn’t like him or had a conflict of interest be uninvolved in this.

  This was how the matter got blown up.

  The capital magistrate sent people to the general’s manor to investigate the thieves who had stolen the storehouses.

  Xiao Yuanshi happened to have some matters to attend to in the outskirts of the capital that day, so he didn’t know that the capital magistrate had gone to the general’s manor to investigate.

  Ge Chunru finished serving the old lady for lunch and went for an afternoon lap.

  When the servant girl reported that the capital magistrate had sent people to the general’s manor to investigate the thieves, her sleepiness completely dissipated.

  Her expression was extremely unsightly. “What’s going on?”


  The servant girl cautiously replied, “It was the eldest master and third master who brought others to the capital magistrate’s manor to lodge the case. They said that all the silver and valuable items in the general’s manor’s storeroom were stolen.

  “So they came to investigate.”


  When Ge Chunru heard this, she almost fainted from a shortness of breath. “What? What are those people doing here?”


  If this matter were to spread, it would be extremely embarrassing.

  Most importantly, she was the one who instructed others to move the money and valuables from the storeroom.

  They were all in her younger brother’s courtyard. If they discovered it, she and her brother wouldn’t be able to explain themselves.

  What about her reputation?

  Thus, she immediately got up and quickly walked over.

  At this moment, the old lady and the others were leading the capital magistrate’s people to look at the storeroom.

  When Ge Chunru went over, the old lady had just handed over an account book to him.

  “I’ve only been the lady of the house for less than a month. This is the money we spent after I took over the house.

  “Do you believe that such a large general’s manor only has so little money and things?”


  The old lady’s face was full of worry, and she even wiped away her tears. “I was afraid that someone would steal them and the general’s mansion couldn’t make ends meet. My son and daughter-in-law would suffer in their day-to-day expense, so I thought I’d better lodge a case.

  “It’s good that we can recover some of it.”


  As this involved various parties, the capital magistrate deployed a court chief that was very experienced in investigating cases.

  Thus, he flipped through the accounts. “This amount is indeed impossible.

  “Not long ago, the emperor bestowed a thousand taels of gold to General Xiao, and also a number of valuable items. They are neither in your storeroom nor in your account book.

  “The thief is truly bold. He even dares to steal the things bestowed by the emperor.

  “Old lady, don’t worry. We will definitely investigate it thoroughly.”


  When the old lady heard the court chief’s words, she cursed Xiao Yuanshi and Ge Chunru a few times in her heart.

  As expected, the two of them were beasts. A thousand taels of gold. She had never seen a single ingot of gold before.

  Therefore, she said with a face full of gratitude, “I am absolutely confident in you to handle this. I’ll have to trouble you to get the money and items back.”


  Although it was a house thief, as long as she got the money and things back, it would be hers. After all, she was in charge of the house now